- Barry Janoff

With the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics coming this Friday, marketers are waiting with baited breath to bring their advertising messages to a massive domestic and global audience. However, some of those messages may fall on deaf ears despite the fact that companies worldwide are expected to spend more than $1 billion in advertising.

Two highly targeted demographics--teens and tweens--will be watching the Games but not in the huge numbers that marketers are anticipating. According to a new study from the Harris Interactive Youth Center of Excellence, only 46% of U.S. kids ages 13-18 "expressed an interest" in the upcoming Olympics, and just 27% said they were "extremely or very interested." In addition, only 28% of kids ages 8-12 showed an interest in watching the Games, according to the survey. And in a situation of really taking a hit, only 5% of teens 13-18 said they would purchase products that featured the Olympic logo.

Yet, marketers such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, adidas, Nike and others who covet teen and tween consumers can have an impact if their message is delivered at the right time. According to Harris, the top three Olympic events that teen boys will either watch or read about during the Beijing Games are track and field (35%), swimming (34%) and basketball (34%). For teen girls, the top three events are gymnastics (56%), swimming (46%) and diving (35%).

NBC will provide more than 3,000 hours of coverage across numerous media platforms. Among teens, 59% said they planned to watch Olympic events on TV but only 14% would be watching on a regular basis via the Internet.

"The results of this survey indicate that teens have not yet caught Olympics-fever," Dana Markow, vp/senior consultant at Harris Interactive Youth Center of Excellence, Rochester, N.Y., said in a statement. "Marketers and advertisers may think that teens are a natural constituency for the Games, since many of the Olympic competitors are the same age. Our findings, however, indicate that the Olympics have not yet captured the majority of hearts and minds of today's teens in the U.S."

Still, all is not lost. A whopping 62% agreed with the question, "Do you feel that the Olympics helps build a better and peaceful world?"

Harris Interactive said it conducted the study July 16-24, 2008, interviewing a nationwide sample of 1,353 U.S. 8- to 18-year-olds.